U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,029 ('029 patent) discloses an Apparatus for Cooling a Memory Storage Device, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The apparatus includes fans mounted on a bezel for drawing air through a memory storage device bay of a computer or a memory storage device housing. Drawing air through the bay is intended to cool a hard disk drive mounted in the bay, and to cool the housing. Using air to cool hard drives reduces the risk of data loss due to heat related hard drive failure.
Air may contain particulate matter such as dust and the like. Over time, dust may build up on electronic components within the computer housing. Using a fan to continually draw into the housing may accelerate the dust buildup. It is common for dust may build up on a motherboard, hard drive controller, video card, power supply, or other electronic components. Excessive dust buildup on an electronic component may enable the dust to conduct current, causing the component to short. What is desired is a way to improved electronic component reliability by reducing the amount of dust that enters the computer housing.
To remedy the problems associated with dust and particulate matter, filters are typically integrated with hard drive cooling kits to filter incoming air. Unfortunately, filters may become plugged after extensive use. A plugged filter should be removed, cleaned and replaced to maximize airflow through the filter. The '029 patent describes a bezel for holding an air filter, and an oval shaped cover that snaps on to the bezel to hold the air filter. The filter is flexible. When the filter is full of dust, removal of the filter may flex the filter and cause dust to fall from the filter. The dust may be drawn into the memory storage device housing, or fall on a desktop or floor, for example. Accordingly, what is desired is an improved system of filter removal and replacement that can ease filter replacement and reduce undesired mess associated with filter removal.